Handmade Love

The greatest thing you'll ever learn is just to love and be loved in return. 

- Quote from Moulin Rouge - 

We are not into the whole commercial side of celebrations days, however, I did put a lunchbox love note into my three boys containers this morning.  It's not too mushy, they won't be too embarrassed by it, much.  It's just to let them know that I love them.  

Lunchbox love notes are ok aren't they?  

If someone was making my lunch, I would love a little lunchbox love note now and then.  

Click here for more information/history on St. Valentines Day.

Thanks for stopping by my place today.

With handmade love to your and yours on St. Valentines Day.

My Creative Space

Stamping and cutting flowers to be made into greeting cards to sell at our street party auction this weekend to raise money for a little school that suffered from recent floods in QLD, Australia.


Pop on over to kootoyoo to check out what others are making today.  


Thanks so much for stopping by my place, take care of you, and have a wonderful day.  

Bitsa Joyce

Work is finished for another term, school is out, study books have been hidden - for now.

It's time to get busy!

home made bling for our Christmas tree. . . .

home made rocky road for gifting . . . .

cupcakes for us . . . .

wrapped by Joyce . . . .

rum balls for gifting and rum balls for us . . . .

birthday card making, cause you know, there are still birthdays being had at Christmas time . . . .

and lovely crochet whilst singing very loudly to carols, snuggled down on blankets and pillows in our lounge room.

(I so wish I could sing for real, just imagine being in a choir, being able to create that spine chilling tingle through your audience simply through your vocal chords. *sigh*)

What are your bitsa's this weekend?

Have a lovely 6 sleeps to go at your place (7 if you are still in Saturday).

P.S. my little project is coming along despite not having mentioned it recently. It's rather a silly time of year to begin such a venture, but like Elvis sings, 'It's now or never'.

Upcycle

Upcycling is the process of converting waste materials or useless products into new materials or products of better quality or a higher environmental value. (from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia - click here)

this is the upcycling symbol.

Last year I finished my term on the board at my children's preschool. I loved being on the committee, I loved fundraising, I loved learning about how a preschool works, and I so love the staff that worked so hard to make the preschool the wonderful little community body it is. When I finished up, myself and some of the other parents on the committee that were also leaving, were gifted some beautiful thank you presents from the staff. They were so totally wrapped with love and the above card is made from some of the wrapping and ribbon that adorned my beautiful present. I actually made 7 greeting cards from this beautiful floral shimmer paper. It was only a band around the gift, as the gift was wrapped in pure white glossy wrap and this band of floral went all the way around, as well as the lovely satin ribbon. (I would so love a wrap skirt in this pattern that I could wear with a lime green top.)

I just could NOT paper box this paper for the recycling bin, what a horrid thing to do to such pretty paper. So it went into my stash box, as I just knew it would be perfect for a card to send my love through the mail.

What have you upcycled lately, I would love to see.

Love thy Neighbour

Our neighbours are NOT EVER allowed to vacate their current residential address - NOT EVER, NOT NEVER !!

We went on a little family holiday for 4.5 weeks from our home, our beautiful neighbours looked after our home, yard, mail, bins and all those bits that need to be done on a regular basis around the home INCLUDING they mowed not only our front lawn, but our back lawn as well. Bless them - I say.

We come home to perfectly manicured lawns, empty mailbox, and cared for home.

We certainly hit the jackpot when we bought our little block of land in this beautiful piece of paradise we call home.

This is the little card I made for them to go with a selection of locally made goodies, from teas, to soaps, fudge, honey, and jams. I love gifting local produce, especially when it is just SOOOO delish, not to mention the local markets are held outdoors and the stall-holders are REAL people that LOVE what they do and they LOVE to talk about what they LOVE to do.

It's all about the love baby!!

Go On Make Me - Continued.

The following are cards that I have made from the remaining 'scraps' of patterned papers from an earlier post. There are 9 in total.

Sometimes we know exactly what we want to say, however, just cant get the words out right. We can all relate to famous quotes and movie quotes, so a little quote help from those that have a 'gift' for making words sing to our hearts and souls can be all we need to make that special someone's day. I love this Heidi Grace paper (above) and I didn't want to overcrowd the pretty stemmed hearts too much. This lovely border stamp, given to me by a dear wonderful friend (she has impeccable taste) is perfect to frame the beautiful Moulin Rouge quote. I managed to make two of this one above, one is already sold.

Loving this bright, cheery paper teamed with orange and black. Hopefully will put a smile on the face of the receiver. This can be sent for any reason at all.

This would be my favourite of all the cards I made. The orange felt heart I cut from my boys felt stash. lol. Well they weren't using it!! The little safety pin come from a clothing tag (yes, I collect the tags as well as the pins) The little green beads come from my bead stash which I cleaned out on the weekend, but couldn't part with any of it, so basically just rearranged my beads and have pulled some out to use in my scrapping and cards.

I love this card also, can you tell I was getting to the bottom of the patterned paper pile (ohh, now just try and say those 3 words fast. lol. you just did, didn't you - *giggle* it's ok, cause I did too.) Can you see the little bits of bling? Bling is King!! Love it, totally transforms the card.

I am wishing now I had made the middle of the flower the same as the earlier one, but this looks ok still. I have added some sequins and bling to the flowers as well.

Now this was certainly the last card I made. Lol, but I just didn't want to waste such pretty scraps, nor did I want to put them back into my stash, because we all know that they will doubtfully ever come out again. The 'happy birthday' is printed from my computer using 'trubble' font, then, when cut to size I outlined with a fine black felt tip pen.

Thanks so much for checking out my little cards. I love making them and love even more to send them.

Love a bit of lime

Here are 2 cards I made last night. Took photos this morning as I thought it would be brighter, however, woke to gloriously, dripping, wet, soaking, beautiful, drenching rain. So sorry for the bad lighting, but you get the idea.

I still have plenty of scraps over, and will share the rest when done. The first card I have used orange sparkly felt for the heart and a bit of black felt. Just love the lime ric rac to really brighten the card. I have also used sequences if you have a closer look, as a girl loves a little sparkle. Card number 2 the black border just brings it all together perfectly and again, a little lime flower with a sequence in the middle for a dash of 'look at me'.

Just want to say H-e-l-l-o, to a lovely friend that stopped by on my last post. In so many ways, you have put a huge smile on my face today. Thank you :)

May your Saturday bring a smile to your face, even in just a small way, it's often the little things that are so important.

Go On Make Me!!

Yeah, make me, just you make me. lol, so ok, the paper is talking to me now. Well so they should, just how pretty are these bits of scraps that I had laying in a pile on the floor of my studio this afternoon. They are now on my desk front and centre and I added in the black cardstock. Sure, cute bits of paper, I'll make you . . . . hmmmm, into a card me thinks.

I know, I know, 2 posts in the one day, bit scary for you, well sorry to the 3 people out there that are reading this. lol, If you stop by, please say hello, yup, that's all you have to do, just type h-e-l-l-o, nothing else. lol. Go on, I dare you.

Ok, the paper is calling me, back to the studio, I promise to share what I make.

Not Just on Valentines Day. . . . .

Whether you believe in the day or not, you cannot escape it really. Restaurants full to the brim of lovers celebrating their relationship, florists, bursting to the seems with imported roses of all colours, ready to be couriered out to offices, and homes all over the country, bottles of champagne on the chill ready to 'clink' in toast to the hours/years spent together. Umm-ing and pen chewing over what to write on the card that says just how we feel, but without sounding too soppy/daggy/desperate. Scented candles purchased for a romantic evening.

I have just done some research on how exactly Valentines Day come about, I am not going to post any of it here, because there are SOOOOO many different ideas. The most popular seemed to be that 'he' is St. Valentine who was executed on the 14th February, 269 AD for saying no to being asked to fight. Another website claims that St. Valentine was in love with the gaolers daughter and wrote poetry to her before he was executed, and so in his honour the 'love day' come about.

Well I do remember when I was a young-er thing, lol, of Valentines Day and all us girls in the office would almost hang off the couriers as they started to make their rounds to all the office buildings. Never to be disappointed, we were laden down on the train ride home, with all the other girls in the city and their bunches of roses, boxes of choccies and huge, big eyed teddy bears. Once we were home with our 'gifts' and mysterious handwritten/typed cards, it was quickly to dress and powder the nose (oh a can of hairspray in the 80's - and lots of black eyeliner for the 90's), ready for dinner at a very romantic location.

These days, for me, Valentine's Day is keeping close to my heart my family and friends, I much prefer choccies and flowers for any other day of the year than the 14th February. I don't like the fact that we have to be reminded to tell those closest to us that we love them by purchasing way over-priced items trussed up in red cellophane. (However, champagne and choccies will never be turned away here - lol.)

So I know it's still a whole week away yet, but I wish you all a lovely St. Valentines Day next Sunday, and that you be surrounded by all the 'loves' of your lives, with perhaps a little choccie and champagne. lol.

New Year Resolution - The First One

Yes, I have a few resolutions, but my most important and main resolution for 2010 is to be part of the Leukaemia Foundation Shave for a Cure. My hubbie did the shave about 5 years ago now, and since he and his workmates raised some wonderful cash, I thought I would like to also one day do the shave.

As usual, 'one day' has become 5 years later, however, my hair is now long enough that I can not only shave it, but donate it for wig-making OR if someone would like to purchase my locks, they are more than welcome to pay for it, which the money will also go to the Leukaemia Foundation. My hair hasn't been permed, treated, coloured, or henna for approximately 4 years now. (and Yes!, it's driving me crazy.)

It's only hair, it will grow back, but the money raised for the Leukaemia Foundation will go towards helping a family with respite, paying for nursing care, paying for studies to continue that hopefully one day a cure can be found. Please visit my page and donate - every dollar counts.

To visit my page, go to

http://my.imisfriendraising.com.au/personalPage.aspx?SID=86578

I have also made little notelet packs that I am selling on madeit.com.au. $1.00 from each pack is being donated to my shave fundraising. Here is a pic of some of my sets.

So far just through friends and gift giving, I have gotten a few orders, which has been wonderful, so I decided to expand my horizons and take them 'out there'. If you purchase these straight from me, the cost is $3.00 per set or 10 sets for $20.00. ($1.00 from each set, still goes to the Leukaemia Foundation) Postage will be worked out depending on destination and number ordered.

Thank you for your support.